Advanced stop line

Leave a reply

Politicians who appreciate riding bikes as a transforming force towards sustainable cities use to support advanced stop lines on streets. An advanced stop line is a special infrastructure in those streets in which there is not bike lines, so bicycles and cars share them. It can also appear in roads with no segregated bike line. As you can see in the picture, bikes have a reserved area just before the traffic light so that cars can not occupy it while in red. The reserved area can be colored in green or red to highlight the place for bikes:

The ideas behind this, or why the advanced stop line is so important, are fundamentally four:

– Bikers become extremely visible to car drivers since these persons just need to open their eyes to see the riders.

– Bikers do not inhale pollution from the cars they have on their backs, or at least they do so at a much less rate.

– Conflicts between bikers and car drivers are reduced because this solution makes clear who is the first to start moving after the traffic light is green.

– Traffic is calmed due to cars can not reach an excessive speed the moment the traffic light is green.

Bicycle race (song)

Leave a reply

If somebody asked you what is the song related to bikes you remember first?, you would probably answer Bicycle race, by Queen. It was released in 1978 and from the first moment it become a hymn for every biker. Freddie Mercury wrote it inspired by a stage in the 1978 Tour de France when passing Montreux, where the rock band was recording Jazz at the Mountain Studios.

The video song was controversial at the time since showed a bicycle race with nude women at the old Wimbledon Stadium. In fact, it was edited and even banned in several countries. The group was forced to purchase all the bicycle seats by the renting company once it realized the way their bikes were used. Denis de Vallance filmed the video.

And here is the song

Water bikes

Leave a reply

The power of bicycles is so impressive that one can understand people use it in mysterious, outstanding ways. Everybody have in mind bikes are suitable for solid surfaces like roads or paths. But what Judah Schiller invented in the San Francisco bay was amazing: Water bikes.

The idea behind this was to create a sustainable way of transport competing with rowboats and avoiding sometimes unnecessary detours. The fact which allowed this was the need he had to cross the bay bridge between Oakland and San Francisco to go to work. He had done so on boat and was tired. The first product was BayCycle, a portable floating device to pedal on water.

This initial idea evolved into a mix of bike and catamaran in which pedaling has an essential role. When a person pedals, it moves a screw which allows sailing. On the other hand, the handlebars are used as rudder. If you want to stop, just use the backpedal brake similarly as the Netherlander bikes.

Moreover, their creator claims these bikes are folded in 10 minutes in order to easily transport them, and carry it comfortably. It is no wonder that this new kind of bike has enjoyed success and more companies have decided to produce their own water bikes.

Criteriums

Leave a reply

Criteriums are urban races where participants ride their bikes to spin and complete a established round. Such events use to be done at night because of less car traffic and are popular among fixie bike lovers. Racers highlight adrenaline rush as a motivation in these races that are presented in lots of cities.

A special case is Singapore. In 2013, the first criterium took place there thanks to the tenacity of Zul Awad. Eric Khoo Shui Yan helped him and Holy Crit was the race name. They organized eight races up until November 2014 on closed roads or with little traffic. But also without the required permissions. Authorities fined them even if they explained them their unique objective was to increase the number of bikers. They did not receive any payment, nor did they have sponsors.

Ding Jie Ng, a young producer, noticed their troubles with justice and felt the need of telling it to the world. Thus, he made a documentary, Fixied, with little resources and inspired by the criteriums. As a results, he filmed a documentary with the help of Zul at night which is worth it from a cyclist and human perspective.